It rained here in Southern California. In July. This is BIG. My family moved to Los Angeles when I started high school, and I have been retired a couple of years. In all this time I don’t remember it ever raining in July. From 1877 through 2009, the average rainfall for July around here is .01″. “More rain fell here in Los Angeles over the course of 12 hours on Friday — 1.53 inches — than had fallen over the last eight months, according to the National Weather Service.”
Because of the drought in California, I am permitted to water my yard only in the early morning on Tuesdays & Saturdays. I won’t be watering tomorrow.
MK pix 
We could certainly use a bit of that!
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I think this rain came from Baja California, instead of from the north of us. I hope you get some rain too. Apparently this will be an El Nino year.
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As a relatively newcomer to Los Angeles (been living here since 2011), it’s been difficult getting used to the lack of rain, so I get very excited every time it sprinkles around here. The significant rains of the past few days were awesome. As are your flower shots! Let it rain!
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Thanks Angela. I’m always thrilled at any rain, even if it comes in winter.
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You take such beautiful photos MK. I am glad you got some rain to feed the dry earth. 🙂
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Thanks so much, Karen. All our plants (and insects and birds) are glad along with you and I.
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I’m glad you got some rain to take care of those flowers you’ve photographed so well. We continue to get too much rain in our region and have flash flood warnings on a daily basis. Fortunately it hasn’t been terrible where I live, just very annoying and some wet basements that had never been wet before. I remember after living in California for two years, while in the Army, it took me a little bit of time to get used to lightening and thunderstorms back home in Missouri.
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We used to live on a Goldilocks planet – we used to know the rules when it comes to weather. Not so any more. I have always lived in the southwest, so any break from warm/sunny is a celebrated event. In the years I had to travel to Chicago on business, I marveled at the thunder & lightening. Kinda scared me, actually.
Thanks for your visit & comment, David.
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Nice separation from the background. What kind of lens and aperture were you shooting? Glad you got some rain. Hope it didn’t cause mud slides!
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Thanks Steve. I was using a Nikkor Micro 85mm lens. I set ISO to 200 and white balance to cloudy. I was shooting RAW just to see if it improved my results (I think it did). I wanted to blur the background because the grass is kind of burned up from minimal water & lack of shade (middle shot). On the top shot, the background is rock. I’m still learning how to do manual exposure.
TOP – f/5.6 at 1/640 sec (manual exposure)
MIDDLE – f/5.6 at 1/320 sec (manual exposure)
BOTTOM – f/6.3 at 1/160 sec (aperture priority)
I guess a part of interstate 10 out near the California/Arizona border did wash out!
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Thanks. You’re doing a great job learning. Keep up the good work. RAW preserves all the sensor detailed info, but generally requires more work on the computer to make it look the way you want. However you’re doing it, your photos always come out nice.
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Pictures are lovely. We get so much rain I can’t even imagine what it’s like NOT to have it all the time.
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Thank you Gigi. Every rain – no matter how little – becomes a topic of discussion. Comedians like to make fun of us: three drops on the windshield becomes a “Storm Watch”. My time in Chicago (the summer visits) were magical to me. So much green!!!
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That is such good news! Your flowers are gorgeous and I’m sure they appreciate a nice big drink!
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It is as if the whole yard is celebrating. The flowers are the lead singers.
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